And... we're off... to the start of the growing season that is!

The calendar page still reads February, yet today it felt like a warm day in May so I took advantage of that and planted 2 rows of peas in one of our new raised bed gardens. Also, planted 2 bare root apple trees and 2 bare root cherry trees in the orchard. (Honey Crisp, Arkansas Black-apple trees, Mont Morency- a tart cherry, and then a sweet variety of cherry tree)  We also added 3 rhubarb plants to the fruit and berry patch. 

Our small orchard has room for one more fruit tree... thinking maybe a fig tree? 

We also picked up 4 blueberry bushes yesterday, a Southern Magnolia Tree, 8 strawberry plants and 2 muscadine vines.  I am new to Muscadines but they tell me they are easy to grow here and are very similar to grapes.  So we're going to give them a try. Hoping to get the rest of these plants in the ground over the next few days.  

We have been mulching and picking up all the broken bags of potting soil, manure mix, and peat mix we can find at any home or garden store.  Probably not the best plan for filling all these garden beds, but we haven't found a good source for rich soil around here yet...so we plug along and if you get a broken bag they are typically 1/2 price.  At least that helps a bit to ease the pain of buying dirt!

We've also started our tomato and pepper plants indoors, 36 of each, and 6 varieties.  Should be a good mix for canning, eating, and cooking.

Brian has been working on the new flatbed trailer he picked up last year, he is honing his welding skills and getting pretty good at it.  He hooked it up today and took it for a test run.  I am looking forward to the planks going in so he can start hauling dirt in larger quantities! 

Another project we hope to tackle soon is to get some grass planted in front of the house.  In an effort to be as organic as possible around here, we put down thick black plastic on the entire front lawn last Spring and let the sun bake the weeds and soil so we have a fighting chance to get grass established before the weeds return.  I pulled back some of the plastic today and it looks like rich dark dirt...so I think that plan may have been a success! 

You can probably tell by all the outside projects we've been working on, that house project isn't moving forward very fast, but we did pick up some new appliances last week which will help complete the kitchen layout at least as far as appliances are concerned.  Our next indoor project will be to get the insulation and ceiling completed in the foyer and loft area. While we know we should be working on it now before the heat of summer is upon us, the warmer days just seem to tug at our hearts to go outside...it's our happy place so that's where we tend to be...outside being happy!